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Vilarinho da Furna: A Drowned Roman Village

Vilarinho da Furna,
in the municipality of Terras de Bouro in the Braga district, in
northern Portugal, was an old village that was erased from the map in
1972 by the construction of a nearby dam. A reservoir up on the River
Homem was filled and Vilarinho da Furna went down underwater, but not
for eternity. Once in a while, when the water level of the reservoir
falls below a certain level, the ghostly buildings of a once flourishing
village emerges.

Vilarinho da Furna’s death was sudden, but the
writing was on the walls for nearly two decades. It’s the same old
story—Big corporation wants land for a big project; big corporation
drives people out; big corporation demolishes people’s homes. The big
corporation in this case was the Portuguese Electricity Company, and the
big project was a 125 MW hydroelectric dam.
Photo credit: www.cm-terrasdebouro.pt

Dozens
of towns and villages all over the world have suffered the same fate at
the hands of power companies. But Vilarinho da Furna wasn’t just any
village. It was a 2,000-year-old village built during the Roman times.
Although not much is known about its early history, there are still a
few ruins from the older days. The most notable of these are three Roman
bridges.
At the time the village was flooded, Vilarinho da Furna
had 300 residents. They kept hens, cows, pigs, sheep and goats. There
were pasture lands atop the hills and arable land was quite sparse. So
the houses were built close together and had overhanging first floors.
The
village was evacuated beginning September 1969, and the last inhabitant
moved out in 1971. The power company paid very little to these people
in compensation—a mere half an escudo per square meter of land, which
was just enough to buy half a sardine at that time. For the house and
the structures, the rate was fixed at 5 escudos per square meter. So the
villagers took away anything they could carry, including the roof tiles
leaving only the bare walls of the houses behind.
Finally in
1972, the retaining walls were blown up and a deluge from River Homem
swallowed up Vilarinho da Furna for ever. Ironically, it was the
construction of the dam and the subsequent flooding of the village that
allowed Vilarinho da Furna to be still remembered.
Now when a
particularly long dry spell hits, tourist flock to the shores of the
reservoir to get a glimpse of the village emerging from under the water.
Photo credit: Benkeboy/Wikimedia
Photo credit: www.cm-terrasdebouro.pt
Photo credit: adere-pg.pt
An old photo of Vilarinho da Furna.
The Vilarinho da Furna dam. Photo credit: adere-pg.pt
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Vilarinho da Furna: A Drowned Roman Village
Reviewed by photofun4ucom
on
April 13, 2018
Rating: 5